One less headache for Yahoo at its annual meeting

Yahoo Inc.’s board will have on less critic to deal with at its annual meeting Friday.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, with whom the Web portal sparred on nearly a daily basis until they declared an uneasy peace last week, said on his blog today that he won’t attend the meeting in San Jose.

“The proxy fight is over and it will not do shareholders or Yahoo any good to have the annual meeting turn into a media event for no purpose,” he wrote.

As part of his siege of Yahoo, Icahn pressured the board to accept a takeover by Microsoft Corp. or be replaced his handpicked slate of directors. The two sides settled the matter by giving Icahn control of three board seats on an expanded 11-seat board.

Icahn said that he met with Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock a few days ago and added: “I believe both gentlemen genuinely wish that we will be able to work together to enhance value. While we still disagree on many points, I have great hope ‘this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.’ “

Other Yahoo investors may not be so loving at the company’s annual meeting, where criticism is expected to fly over the collapsed Microsoft takeover bid.